raymac46 Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 In my time playing around with Linux I've had two machines that started out with no O/S at all and have never run anything but Linux. Both have been desktop systems. One was put together for me by a local clone maker in 2008. He thought I was a little goofy to buy it this way, but he obliged me. The other one I built myself, choosing all the hardware to work great with Linux. Has anyone here ever built a laptop with no O/S or bought one? I'd certainly like to try it from a barebones state - add my own memory, wifi and hard drive. But the local clone shops don't have the parts I'd need. It really bugs me to have to buy a laptop with Windows preinstalled, then blow it off just so I can have a Linux based system. I suppose I could get something from System 76 or ZaReason but I can do it myself just as easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webb Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 You can get them from Tigerdirect.com or Newegg.com. I've bought a couple from Newegg. I have a slight prejudice for it because Tiger Direct is in Florida and collects sales tax from me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 (edited) Has anyone here ever built a laptop with no O/S or bought one? I'd certainly like to try it from a barebones state - add my own memory, wifi and hard drive. Does a rebuild/refurbish count? A few years back, Josh gave me a Dell Inspiron 1521. It had a password locked BIOS and an encrypted hdd. I hacked the BIOS password, but couldn't get past the hdd encryption scheme (Bambi's hubby has the hdd - sent to them to tinker with). It also had a damaged key on the keyboard, so I replaced the keyboard with a new one. Anyway, I added a hard drive and RAM provided to me by Frank Golden. Once all was installed, I set the lappy up with Slackware and Win 7 Enterprise. More recently, I added a bigger hdd and RAM provided by Aryeh Goretsky. This is what the little lappy looks like these days... ericslaptop01 Dell Inspriron 1521 AMD® Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology AMD™ M690T Chipset with ATI™ Radeon® X1270 Graphics Western Digital 640 Gig hdd ExpressCard slot (54 mm) 8-in-1 combo card connector PNY 4 Gig(2Gx2) PC2 5300 matched pair 10/100 Ethernet LAN on system board WLAN, WWAN, WPAN MiniCards ATI Radeon® X1270 Graphics Controller Intel High Definition Audio 15.4-inch WXGA with TrueLife Operating systems: Slackware64, MS Windows 7-64 Edited October 1, 2014 by V.T. Eric Layton 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Great group effort there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Nice Eric!! Everyone had a hand in that machine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Yup. It still works like a champ, too. It's my home office system. I use it for my personal banking, bill-paying, etc. I love that little lappy! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Hello, OCZ sold bare (sans CPU, RAM, storage) laptops for a while, but those disappeared long before they entered bankruptcy. Since laptops tend to be highly-integrated devices, though, you don't tend to see them built piecemeal. That said, hardware hacker Bunny Huang has introduced a (largely) open hardware laptop platform for the adventuresome (e.g., some assembly required). More info can be found at the Novena wiki. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Nice Aryeh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt.Crow Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 No it's not easy pulling a lappy apart and putting it back together correctly. Just done that today with the 1720. Still can't find the prob with the screen . All wires etc OK . Must be s/ware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 I've done my share of laptop rescue over the years using Linux. I started out with a couple of real junkers that originally ran Windows 95. I've upgraded a couple of netbooks that were Linux machines from the start. But everything came from the factory with some sort of O/S in place. That said , Eric's post gave me an idea on how to proceed here. Get a used off lease commercial grade laptop probably running Windows 7 Pro. These tend to be easier to work on anyway. Pull the hard drive and replace it, maybe even with an SSD. Put the old hard drive away. Install Linux. Done. A project for when the snow flies in Canada. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.